Kuwait to shut files of companies that don’t pay salaries to workers on time

If your salary has ever landed late, or your pay slip shows one number while your bank account shows another, this news is about you. Kuwait’s government just put every employer on notice: pay your workers on time, or lose your company file.

First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Sheikh Fahad Al-Yousef made the warning clear this week. He said Kuwait will not accept labour exploitation, human trafficking, money laundering or any violation of workers’ rights. The message follows months of complaints from expat workers about delayed or missing pay, a topic we’ve covered before in our look at Kuwait’s new system to protect private-sector salaries.

What exactly did Sheikh Fahad say?

Sheikh Fahad gave one striking example during the meeting: a Kuwaiti citizen whose paperwork showed a salary of KD 3,000 a month, but who was actually receiving only KD 180. He said this kind of gap points to fake salary records, where companies list one number on paper and pay something else entirely.

He stressed that the law applies to everyone, no matter who owns the company or how well-known they are. “Anyone who breaks the law will face the law,” he said. He called on employers to meet their obligations and treat their workers fairly, something this site has flagged before when covering how Kuwait’s salary system is meant to work.

Why delivery workers got a special mention

Sheikh Fahad raised a separate concern about delivery riders. He said 300 delivery workers were dismissed in just two weeks, and that some were losing pay because employers claimed they had committed violations.

He called these deductions unacceptable. Companies, he said, should not use alleged violations as an excuse to withhold wages. He also criticised delivery jobs that keep riders on the road for up to 18 hours a day, saying this is unfair and puts their welfare at risk. His advice to companies: hire drivers who are already trained to drive in their home countries, instead of pushing riders into such long hours.

“Have mercy on foreigners,” he said, urging business owners to think about workers’ living costs and meet their legal and financial duties towards them. If you work in delivery, this fits alongside our earlier coverage of Kuwait’s tighter rules on delivery riders and the public attention on rider treatment in recent weeks.

So who checks all this?

Eng. Rabab Al-Osaimi, Director General of the Public Authority for Manpower, confirmed that PAM will close the files of companies that fail to pay salaries. She said some firms register fictitious salaries on paper, creating a gap between what’s recorded and what workers actually receive.

PAM is now working with the Central Bank of Kuwait to close loopholes linked to this practice and to tighten oversight of salary payments generally. This builds on the wage protection system we explained in our piece on what Kuwait’s digital salary system means for expat workers.

Sheikh Fahad also asked PAM to make manpower-needs assessments (how many workers a company can hire) available to everyone, without requiring inspection first, to make the process easier. But he was clear that any company caught breaking the law will still be held accountable.

One more thing is under review: bringing back the transfer of domestic workers’ residency permits under Article 20 (a residency category for domestic staff) to private-sector jobs. This is only being studied right now. No decision has been made to restart it.

How bad is the problem, by the numbers?

PAM’s own data, up to June 2026, shows 8,849 company files suspended for not paying wages. That’s 18.3% of the 48,408 company files registered for businesses with five or more workers.

There’s also good news in the numbers. Wage compliance climbed to 75.6% in July 2026, up from just 38.7% in July 2025. That’s a jump of 36.9 percentage points in a single year, suggesting the oversight push is having an effect even as enforcement challenges remain.

Workers are also using the system more. Between January and September 2026, companies submitted 93,865 applications through the wage collection system, up 195.6% from 31,757 applications in the same period in 2025. Of these, 93,852 were approved, a very high approval rate. PAM says this gives a clearer picture of which companies are actually complying.

What this means if you live and work in Kuwait

If you’re an expat worker, this is a sign that authorities are paying closer attention to unpaid and underpaid wages, including cases where your pay slip doesn’t match your bank deposit. If you believe your employer is doing this, you can use the Sahel app to report labour violations directly to the ministry.

If you’re a citizen or resident running a company with 5 or more staff, the 20th of each month is now your line in the sand. Miss it repeatedly, and PAM can close your file, which affects your ability to hire, renew permits and operate normally.

If a mandoob or office asks you for extra money you shouldn’t pay, that’s also covered under the ministry’s wider push to clean up labour practices this year.

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